The Hesperides & Noble Numbers Part 42

2. _Whither, mad maiden_, etc. From Martial, I. iv. 11, 12:--

Aetherias, lascive, cupis volitare per auras: I, fuge; sed poteras tutior esse domi.

_But for the Court._ Cp. Martial, I. iv. 3, 4.

4. _While Brutus standeth by._ "Brutus and Cato are commonplaces of examples of severe virtue": Grosart. But Herrick is translating. This is from Martial, XI. xvi. 9, 10:--

Erubuit posuitque meum Lucretia librum, Sed coram Bruto; Brute, recede, leget.

8. _When he would have his verses read._ The thought throughout this poem is taken from Martial, X. xix., beginning:--

Nec doctum satis et parum severum, Sed non rusticulum nimis libellum Facundo mea Plinio, Thalia, I perfer:

where the address to Thalia perhaps explains Herrick's "do not _thou_ rehea.r.s.e". The important lines are:--

Sed ne tempore non tuo disertam Pulses ebria januam, videto.

Seras tutior ibis ad lucernas.

Haec hora est tua, c.u.m furit Lyaeus, c.u.m regnat rosa, c.u.m madent capilli: Tunc me vel rigidi legant Catones.

_When laurel spirts i' th' fire._ Burning bay leaves was a Christmas observance. Herrick sings:--

"Of crackling laurel, which foresounds A plenteous harvest to your grounds":

where compare Tibull. II. v. 81-84. It was also used by maids as a love omen.

_Thyrse ... sacred Orgies._ Herrick's glosses show that the pa.s.sage he had in mind was Catullus, lxiv. 256-269:--

Harum pars tecta quatiebant cuspide thyrsos ... ... ... ...

Pars obscura cavis celebrabant orgia cistis, Orgia, quae frustra cupiunt audire profani.

10. _No man at one time can be wise and love._ Amare et sapere vix deo conceditur. (Publius Syrus.) The quotation is found in both Burton and Montaigne.

12. _Who fears to ask_, etc. From Seneca, _Hippol._ 594-95. Qui timide rogat ... docet negare.

15. _G.o.ddess Isis ... with her scent._ Cp. Plutarch, _De Iside et Osiride_, 15.

17. _He acts the crime._ Seneca: Nil interest faveas sceleri an illud facias.

18. _Two things odious._ From Ecclus. xxv. 2.

31. _A Sister ... about I'll lead._ "Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife?" 1 Cor. ix. 5.

35. _Mercy and Truth live with thee._ 2 Sam. xv. 20.

38. _To please those babies in your eyes._ The phrase "babies [_i.e._, dolls] in the eyes" is probably only a translation of its metaphor, involved in the use of the Latin _pupilla_ (a little girl), or "pupil,"

for the central spot of the eye. The metaphor doubtless arose from the small reflections of the inlooker, which appear in the eyes of the person gazed at; but we meet with it both intensified, as in the phrase "to look babies in the eyes" (= to peer amorously), and with its origin disregarded, as in Herrick, where the "babies" are the pupils, and have an existence independent of any inlooker.

_Small griefs find tongue._ Seneca, _Hippol._ 608:

Curae leves loquuntur, ingentes stupent.

_Full casks._ So G. Herbert, _Jacula Prudentum_ (1640): Empty vessels sound most.

48. _Thus woe succeeds a woe as wave a wave._ Horace, Ep. II. ii. 176: Velut unda supervenit unda. ??ata ?a??? and ?a??? t?????a are common phrases in Greek tragedy.

49. _Cherry-pit._ Printed in the 1654 edition of _Witts Recreations_, where it appears as:--

"_Nicholas_ and _Nell_ did lately sit Playing for sport at cherry-pit; They both did throw, and, having thrown, He got the pit and she the stone".

51. _Enn.o.bled numbers._ This poem is often quoted to prove that Herrick's country inc.u.mbency was good for his verse; but if the reference be only to his sacred poems or _n.o.ble Numbers_ these would rather prove the opposite.

52. _O earth, earth, earth, hear thou my voice._ Jerem. xxii. 29: O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.

56. _Love give me more such nights as these._ A reminiscence of Marlowe's version of Ovid, _Amor_. I. v. 26: "Jove send me more such afternoons as this".

72. _Upon his Sister-in-law, Mistress Elizabeth Herrick_, wife to his brother Thomas (see _infra_, 106).

74. _Love makes me write what shame forbids to speak._ Ovid, _Phaedra to Hippol._: Dicere quae puduit scribere jussit amor.

_Give me a kiss._ Herrick is here imitating the well-known lines of Catullus to Lesbia (_Carm._ v.):--

Da mi basia mille, deinde centum, Dein mille altera, dein secunda centum, Deinde usque altera mille, deinde centum, Dein, c.u.m millia multa fecerimus, Conturbabimus illa, ne sciamus, etc.

77. _To the King, upon his coming with his army into the west._ Ess.e.x had marched into the west in June, 1644, relieved Lyme, and captured royal fortresses in Dorset and Devon. Charles followed him into "the drooping west," and, in September, the Parliamentary infantry were forced to surrender, while Ess.e.x himself escaped by sea. Herrick's "white omens" were thus fulfilled.

79. _To the King and Queen upon their unhappy distances._ Henrietta Maria escaped abroad with the crown jewels in 1642, returned the next year and rejoined Charles in the west in 1644, whence she escaped again to France. This poem has been supposed to refer to domestic dissensions; but the "ball of strife" is surely the Civil War in general, and the reference to the parting of 1644.

81. _The Cheat of Cupid._ Herrick is here translating "Anacreon," 31 [3]:--

?es????t???? p??' ??a??

st??fe?' ????' ???t?? ?d?

?at? ?e??a t?? ???t??, e??p?? d? f??a p??ta ??ata? ??p? da??ta, 5 t?t' ???? ?p?sta?e?? e?

?????? ???pt' ???a?.

t??, ?f??, ???a? ???sse?; ?at? e? s???e?? ??e?????.

? d' ????, ?????e, f?s??? 10 ??f?? e??, ? f??sa??

????a? d? ??s??????

?at? ???ta pep????a?.

????sa ta?t' ????sa?, ??? d' e??? ?????? ??a? 15 ?????a, ?a? ??f?? ??

?s??? f????ta t????

pt?????? te ?a? fa??t???.

pa?? d' ?st??? ?a??sa, pa??a?? te ?e??a? a?t?? 20 ????a?p??, ?? d? ?a?t??

?p?????? ????? ?d??.

? d', ?pe? ????? e???e?, f??e, f?s?, pe???s?e?

t?de t????, e? t? ?? ??? 25 ??eta? ?a?e?sa ?e???.